The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of an apparatus for the infeed or delivery of ammunition or ammunition rounds, herein sometimes referred to as cartridges, from an ammunition container to an automatic firing weapon. In particular, although not always necessarily, two types of ammunition or ordnance should be delivered to the automatic firing weapon.
In a heretofore known ammunition infeed apparatus of the aforementioned general type, as disclosed for instance in the commonly assigned Swiss Pat. No. 379,969, granted July 15, 1964 and the cognate German Pat. No. 1,112,427, published Aug. 3,1961 as well as the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 3,045,553, granted July 24, 1962, groups or sets of cartridges, grouped together in ammunition loading or cartridge clips, are stacked in superimposed relationship in an ammunition magazine or container for automatic firing weapons. The lowermost cartridge group or set is supported upon a movable support surface. In this cartridge or ammunition magazine, there is provided a conveyor device which, during firing of the ammunition in the individual loading clips, shifts perpendicular to the individual layers of the superimposed cartridge groups or sets towards the support surface. This support surface is formed from the helical surfaces of two guide surfaces which are in drive connection with the conveyor device located thereabove.
According to another state of the art ammunition infeed device of this type, as disclosed for instance in the likewise commonly assigned German Pat. No. 1,026,201, published Mar. 13, 1958, there is provided a rotatable drum magazine or container. This cartridge infeed apparatus further comprises a conveyor device which extracts or strips the cartridges out of the drum magazine and is arranged upon a stationary base plate. This conveyor device is structured as an endless revolving chain which is provided with entrainment members. This chain is in drive connection with the rotatable drum magazine and assumes an inclined position. This inclined position of the chain coincides with the resultant movement direction which is the result of, on the one hand, the rotational motion or movement of the drum magazine and, on the other hand, the movement of the cartridges in the chamber or compartment which is in the process of being emptied.
According to a further heretofore known ammunition or cartridge infeed device of this type, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,437,005, granted Apr. 8, 1969, a flexible transport band for the transport of the ammunition rounds or cartridges is arranged between a rapid firing weapon, in particular a Gatling-gun, and a stationary ammunition container. This transport band is both bendable and twistable in order to be able to take up the relative movement between the firing weapon and the ammunition container. This transport band contains an outer guide and an inner helical transport element for the transport of the cartridges from the ammunition container to the firing weapon.